THE Green Party plans to contest up to 29 constituencies in the forthcoming general election, and has predicted it can win "at least" seven Dail seats.
Speaking in Dublin on the 15th birthday of the party yesterday, Mr Trevor Sargent TD forecast what he termed "a large and dynamic Green group in the 28th Dail".
The party was confident of taking a large share of the floating vote - measured at 22 per cent in the last Irish Times/MRBI poll - and was claiming that it would considerably increase its 4 per cent of national support.
Mr Sargent is the sole Green TD in Leinster House, but the party has two MEPs, neither of whom will contest the next general election.
Marking its birthday, the Green Party introduced a new logo - a sunflower - and announced its economic policy platform. The former Dublin lord mayor, Mr John Gormley, said his party was "preparing the ground of the general election", and conditions were very favourable for a Green success.
Meanwhile, the party was going through significant change in terms of reviewing its constitution and policies. It had developed as a "brand name" but wanted to get out of this "one-issue category".
Publishing the party's economic platform, Mr Dan Boyle, the Green candidate in Cork South Central, called for tax reform, which involved the phasing out of PRSI and restructuring allowances. The Green party also advocated widening tax bands and the introduction of income tax at a starting rate of 10 per cent, progressing to a top rate of 50 per cent.
Tax should also be shifted from income to resources, particularly with the introduction of an energy tax. This would be levied primarily on industrial and transport fuels, Mr Boyle said.
The party also said strict adherence to the Maastricht criteria need not be so zealously followed, given that most other EU countries were not even close to meeting those guidelines.
A major failing of the social welfare system was that people in receipt of payments were not encouraged - and were in fact forbidden - from earning additional money. This led to the development and the institutionalising of the black economy. A guaranteed basic income should be paid to every adult citizen, either in the form of a direct payment or by way of tax credit, Mr Boyle said.